Basketball camper making strides, inspiring others

WORCESTER — During last month's weeklong Worcester State girls' basketball camp, 13-year-old Katie Joiner was right where she wanted to be — in the middle of all the action.

She moved eagerly from station to station, did 3-on-3 work, rebounded, boxed out, posted up.

"I'm sort of an aggressive player," said Katie, who is 5-foot-9 and still growing.

On the first day, as part of a speed drill, campers dribbled with their right hand while running to the other side of the court as fast as possible.

Katie took off, and fell down.

"I asked her, 'Do you need to sit down?' " said Worcester State junior Natasha Gonzalez of Milford, Katie's coach for the week. "She said, 'Oh, no. I'm fine.' She didn't hesitate. She got back up and got in line to do it again."

A year ago, Katie was in a wheelchair and just a couple of months removed from having part of her right leg amputated. Today, with a prosthetic leg, she is not only walking, she is running and doing a whole lot more.

"Sometimes she doesn't realize what an impact she has on other people with her positivity and her outlook," said Katie's mom, Bridget, who is a staff assistant in Worcester State's student affairs office. "I'm very proud of her. She's an inspiration to a lot of people. She's determined and she's strong."

Katie will be an eighth-grader at Thompson Middle School.

In January 2013, Katie thought she suffered an injury — strained ligaments or something like that — playing basketball. Tests, however, revealed a malignant tumor and she was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare and sometimes aggressive bone cancer that primarily affects children and adolescents.

"We were in shock because one day you're going from a completely healthy child, doing everything she wants to do, to a diagnosis of cancer," Mrs. Joiner said.

Katie began an arduous ordeal. She underwent six months of intense, bi-weekly inpatient chemotherapy at UMass Medical Center. When those rounds ended, she had another full set of scans and tests to see if the tumor had shrunk. It was still touching two nerves.

Doctors removed Katie's right leg from just below her knee.

More chemotherapy followed.

"Sometimes in the hospital," Katie said, "I would forget what home looked like, what it smelled like, what it was like being with my friends, what it was like to have my dog lying on top of me."

Her parents, Bridget and Bob, were with her around the clock during her seemingly endless hospital stay, and she looked forward to visits from members of the Worcester State women's basketball team. Coach Karen Tessmer and Lancer players got to know Katie when she participated in WSU girls' basketball camp the previous summer.

At the hospital, they would play games, talk about school or TV shows, and just hang out.

"She was 12 years old and she was looking up to me as a role model, a college athlete," said former Worcester State guard Michel'le St. Pierre, who graduated in May, "but I tell her she's pretty awesome. Look what she's been through and it hasn't stopped her."

St. Pierre also called and texted Katie often to check up on her.

"It made me feel better," Katie said, "like I was part of the world. They tried to keep things positive. They told me to keep a positive mind — 'You're going to be able to come to camp again. You're going to be able to do it.' "

They made her feel like part of their team.

Katie and her family also received a lot of support from people in their hometown and the rest of the Worcester State community.

After 11 months, Katie's chemo ended in November 2013. Challenges still lay ahead.

She did not get a prosthetic leg until January because she had several sores that needed to heal completely.

"I remember around Christmastime thinking, 'I just want a leg,'" Katie said. "I hadn't walked in almost a year. That's all I wanted to do."

Katie said at first the prosthesis felt "a little weird. It felt really different going from putting no weight on my leg to putting all my weight on it. But I got used to it pretty quickly."

Katie started out using two crutches, then one crutch, then a cane, to walking on her own. She continues to go to physical therapy. She also knows the strong and supportive hands of her parents and her younger brother Tommy are right there if she needs them.

"She likes to do as much for herself as possible," Mrs. Joiner said. "She's very independent. She does well adapting to different situations. She'll figure out how to get from the deck to the pool or the beach to the ocean without the leg."

That usually involves hopping, using crutches or "butt scooting," Katie said, as her prosthetic leg isn't really made for swimming.

Tessmer was surprised at just how much Katie could do during each six-hour camp session.

"Her mobility is great," Tessmer said. "She did just as much as everyone else. I think she's had a great approach to it. And I think it's a positive experience for our players to work with kids who have had to overcome obstacles."

Katie returned on the second day of camp with some bruising and blisters on her right leg.

"I told her to let me know if she needed to sit out," Gonzalez said.

"She never told me she needed to sit out. She tried everything she could."

Katie, who plays for her middle school team and also plays softball, had an appointment this week with a prosthetist about getting a secondary leg with more shock absorption for sports. She'd also like to get one for swimming.

"Sometimes you could tell it was hard for her to get up and down the court," St. Pierre said, "but she would still do it."

Katie received the Coaches Award for her spirit and determination.

At the end of camp, the mother of a younger camper approached Mrs. Joiner.

"Her daughter was worried about going to camp because she thought she was going to be perceived as different because she has diabetes and she wears a pump," Mrs. Joiner said. "She was very nervous about how kids would look at her.

"She saw Katie at camp and went home that night and said she no longer cared about having a pump and being different because Katie was out there doing her best and trying her hardest and wearing a prosthetic leg. It made a difference to her daughter."

Katie, who beams in her teal, orange and purple braces, is very open about her sickness and, now, her health. She doesn't mind answering questions about her leg.

"I'm like, I would tell you my life story," she said.

And who wouldn't be inspired by it?

While she was going through her chemo, Katie went to school the weeks she was off from treatment. She also had a tutor at home and in the hospital. She made the high honor roll every semester of sixth and seventh grade.

She helped out her middle school basketball team from her wheelchair last year, but she plans to be back in the lineup at center this season.

Last year, when she was adjusting to the prosthetic leg, she wasn't supposed to carry anything. This fall, she'll walk the hallways of Thompson Middle toting books and a backpack.

Mrs. Joiner shared with Katie the story about the camper with diabetes.

"It makes me feel like I do give people hope," Katie said. "There's hope out there for everybody.

"If your difference is as small as wearing a pump or as big as having missing limbs, go out there and do what you want to do, whether it's sports or singing or anything. You can still do it."

Contact Jenifer Toland at dnordman@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTandG